The greatest constitutional crisis of Trump's presidency is the overreach of the federal judiciary, manifested first in the various lower court orders attempting to stymie the President's orders on immigration, and now, most seriously, by judges attempting to bypass the President to run the military and the Department of Defense from the federal bench.

Republicans who came to Washington intent on making change should carry through with their promises. Failing to do so will not only guarantee the downfall of President Trump’s winning agenda – it will spell the effective end of their political careers as well.

For whose benefit all these wars? The Korean War finished Truman. Vietnam finished LBJ. Reagan said putting Marines into Lebanon was his worst mistake. Iraq cost Bush II both houses of Congress and his party the presidency in 2008. Should Trump become a war president, he’ll likely become a one-term president.

Trump rolls on, not seeking the elites' approval, not conforming to their demands, ignoring them when he isn’t mocking them on Twitter. He refuses to acknowledge their superiority, their right to rule over us Normals. Because while Trump makes a wonderful avatar, he is really only that – a symbol, a representation of something more terrifying to the elite than any one man. Trump represents Normal Americans, the ones the elite on both the right and the left look down upon with contempt and fear.

Obama was silent for those students and millions of other decent Iranians. He wanted his deal so much that, as we know, he sent still more millions to the mullahs in cash, so they could use those dollars in any untraceable manner they wished. What we also know is that the Donald J. Trump administration has taken the exact opposite approach from the Obama administration to events in Iran. They are unqualifiedly — and immediately — supporting the demonstrators and democracy. Bravo!

The nature of American politics ensures almost constant conflict and 2018 promises to be no different. Republicans should be proud of the progress made in 2017 but by no means is the fight won so everyone can go home satisfied. Simply put, there won’t be any time to rest on our laurels.

Attorney General Bobby Kennedy had his “Get Hoffa Squad” to take down Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. J. Edgar Hoover had his vendetta against Dr. Martin Luther King. Is history repeating itself—with the president of the United States the designated target of an elite FBI cabal?

The press can do better. It has to. The press could use less of the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” posturing and more simple fact-checking. Newsrooms would do well to recommit to the day-to-day fastidiousness of verifying and authenticating their supposed scoops. Also, newsrooms would do well to remind their reporters that they are never supposed to be the story. This is Journalism 101.

When Nikki Haley was announced as President Trump’s choice for UN ambassador we looked at her ties to the Republican establishment and announced ourselves as, to say the least, skeptical, but Haley has proven to be one of President Trump’s more inspired personnel choices and her success in that role is the biggest surprise of 2017.

One can only hope Trump makes a few New Year’s resolutions, most notably a resolve to improve his approval ratings. But some things he’s doing don’t need to be changed; as the first president in decades who seeks to keep his campaign promises, Trump is already ahead of the game.

The year 2017 unfolded into a massive surprise to liberals, who fully expected that before Christmas we would (a) all die in a nuclear war over President Donald Trump's tweets or (b) be swearing in President Mike Pence after Trump was impeached or petulantly quit because the news media were full of meanies. More than ever, the media see themselves as valiant tellers of truth. More than ever, thanks to the man to whose destruction they are committed, most Americans peg them as emotionally intense -- putting it nicely -- leftists.

2017 was pretty good for one year’s work by a guy who was never elected for anything before he ran for the presidency. Only a Never Trumper could complain. But expect the Mueller investigation to go on for a long time and expect the FBI to show increased attention to Jared Kushner. The year 2018 should be a happy one for Donald Trump, but there are reasons to be apprehensive.

2016 turned out to be a year in which it was wise to take Donald Trump as a political candidate seriously but not literally, in the inspired phrase of the Washington Examiner's Pittsburgh-based columnist Salena Zito. As 2017 is on the point of vanishing, it’s worth asking whether it’s time to take Trump seriously, if not literally, as a public policy maker.

For this viewer, the meaning of the Trump show began to change with last week’s tax bill. Donald Trump normalizes nothing new and outré in our politics after all. He is but an effective parody of the politicians we have, and have long had. We are also learning something about the relationship, in our age, between the political show and movement, however fitful, on the nation’s business.

Republicans should rightfully be buoyed by their successes in the past month. Heading into 2018, however, there remain tremendous challenges to unite conservatives, choose good candidates for the midterm elections and put more “legislative points on the board.” Can they hold it together?

Everyone who voted for Trump knew what they were getting and his administration has thus far featured few unpleasant surprises. The White House may lack a true political operation but in many ways that’s a good thing. All signs point to Trump’s momentum being sustained.

On their legislative agenda, Republicans broke out of a slump. Though they got not a single Democratic vote in either chamber, they showed they can govern alone. On the lead item on the GOP-Trump agenda — taxes — they delivered. They shifted policy dramatically toward Republican philosophy. They wagered their future on their convictions. And the splenetic rage among Democrat elites suggests that they know they have suffered a defeat difficult to reverse.

A (political) a war is coming -- you can almost feel it in the air. We should all pray that it will be non-violent and work hard to keep it that way. But we should also have our ideological troops ready and prepared for that imminent battle for the hearts and minds. It's going to be pivotal. NeverTrumpers, please join. Past disagreements will be instantly forgotten and your skills immediately welcomed. I think you can depend on that.

Trump's opportunity here is that taxpayer interests, global needs, and the U.N.'s incompetence all give him both the cause and the means of moral action. It says much about an organization that the relocation of an American embassy sparks more anger than Bashar Assad's slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Now, it's America's time to be angry and to demand change.

This isn’t a fishing expedition, Attorney General Sessions is to be congratulated for ordering prosecutors to look into these matters to ensure that the public interest and law were followed throughout the process in light of very credible whistleblower allegations and the facts thus far revealed in the congressional hearings on Uranium One.